


College Life Can Just Suck

by sakurastar0660



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Explicit Language, F/M, Family Dynamics, Multi, Multiple Partners, Multiple Relationships, Reader-Insert, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-04-21 06:16:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4818245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakurastar0660/pseuds/sakurastar0660
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU Reader insert. College can be rough but even more so when you have to deal with six guys who are all in the same theater class that you're in, manage/direct a major production, attend all your classes, go to polo practice, tend to the horses as well as not fail your finals. Simple enough right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> College AU roughly based on my actual college life. Thinking this one is going to be OT6 and reader parings in some way.  
> Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts, questions or suggestions. Thanks and enjoy.

_ Beep. Beep. Beep. _ A hand sneaks out from under a pile of blankets and flops down onto the snooze button that was accompanied by a groan. The blankets shift and fall away to reveal you, blue haired woman in your early twenties slowly push yourself up onto your hands before sitting back on your legs. You scrub a hand over your face before rubbing the sleep from your eyes. You let out a yawn before climbing down from your bed, cracking the curtains open to let some light in. Walking over to the sink you flick the lights on and proceed to wash your hands. Once they were dried off you grab your contacts case, putting them in. You make your way over to your desk, pulling your phone down from your bed and glancing at the calendar.

“9 AM theater class,” You read, glancing down at your phone to see that it was 6:58 AM. “Probably should leave the dining hall by 8:30.”

You set your phone down on the desk after queuing up some music to play. This is one of the nicer things about not having a roommate- not having to worry about waking them up or working around them. You make your way over to your closet, pulling out a pair of black skinny jeans with short red zippers along the front of them, pulling them on over your spankies. Moving over to your dresser you pull on a bra before throwing your maroon tank top on under your  _ Legend of Zelda _ shirt. You sit down in your desk chair to lace up your grey military boots. Grabbing your wallet, you clip to it to one of your belt loops, putting your eye drops and inhaler in your left pocket while you put your chapstick and keys into your right pocket, attacking your key lanyard to another belt loop. You slide your phone into your back pocket and grab your backpack, slinging it over your shoulder as you exit your room and make your way to the closest dining hall.

Once inside, you find a booth, setting your backpack down in it and pull your laptop out. You load up the newest episodes of your favorite shows, letting them load while you make yourself a waffle and grab some bacon and eggs along with a glass of milk. You make your way back to the booth, eyes glancing over the other students that were there. Most of them were sitting by themselves like yourself but there were a few groups there. One that caught your attention was a group of six males, half looking about your age and the other half looking several years older, laughing and joking around. ‘ _ Morning people are the worst. _ ’ you think to yourself before sitting down and watching your shows.

As 8:30 rolls around, you shutdown your laptop, stuffing it back into your backpack. You collect your dishes, dropping them off at the dish return and make your way out to the bike racks. As you near your bike, you pull out your keys, unlocking the u-bolt and place it on one of your handlebars, tucking your keys back into your pocket. As you pull your bike out of it’s place you notice the group of guys from the dining hall make their way towards main campus. You mount your bike and ride around them, weaving your way in and out of people. You make it to the building in under ten minutes. You find a good spot near the exit, locking your bike up before walking inside and to the classroom, finding it empty. You make your way to the first row, taking the third seat in from the end and plop down into the chair. After a few minutes of sitting there your phone goes off. You pull it out of your pocket and answers it without looking at the call id.

“This is (y/n).” You answer. “Oh hey Jeanene. What’s up?...What time do I-well my last class ends at 2 so I’ll probably head right over.” You look up as the door opens and the same group of guys enters.  _ ‘Great,’ _ you think. “I was thinking of taking my bike…” You turn back around to face the front of the room. “No not my bicycle you ding bat. My motorcycle. Why the hell would I bike out there when there isn’t any place to lock up my bike?...Oh yeah  _ sure _ that’s a good idea…” You shake your head as you turn in your chair, propping your feet up on the chair next to you and notice the guys sit two rows behind your, talking quietly to themselves and you have this suspicion that they are listening to your conversation but that’s probably your paranoia. “Why is it so urgent for me to go out there today anyways?...No fucking way! You’re shitting me right?” You sit up straighter in your chair. “What a fucking asshole. Why the hell didn’t he tell us sooner?” You growl, pinching the bridge of your nose. “Doesn’t he know how hard it will be to find another stable hand?” You let out an exasperated sigh, picking up your pen and absently flicking it between your fingers. “Yeah no...No I can do it…” You let out another sigh, throwing a pen at the wall, making it so that it bounces off and you catch it. “No it’s fine I promise...Ok see you later.” You hang up and set the phone down on the desk. You lean back in your chair, throwing the pen at the ceiling with enough force for it to hit it and you catch the pen again.

The group of guys all stare at your. “How the hell do you do that?” The curly redhead lad, as you has come to classify them- either lad or gent depending on their age- asks you. You turn around and look at them, noticing more people starting to file in. 

You flash a smirk. “It’s a secret.” You turn around to face the front as students take their seats and the professor walks in.

At first glance one would almost mistake the professor as a student but upon closer inspection and from watching the way they walk and carry themselves you realize that they aren’t just another student. The professor stands next to the podium, looking at the semi full classroom.

“This is more than I was expecting.” She comments. “But don’t get too comfortable; we won’t be staying here.” The students give her confused looks. “Grab your things and follow me.” the professor makes her way out of the room.

You grab your bag and quickly follows after the professor. The other students follow after, the guys quickly catching up to you.

“But seriously, how did you do that?” The redhead asks you again.

“Like this.” You pull out your pen and throws it at a wall, catching it again while walking.

“How the-Wot?” The brown haired lad says in a British accent. 

“It’s a secret.” You pocket the pen.

The students follow their professor across campus to the theater. The professor makes her way onto the stage. “Leave your bag in the audience and circle up.”

You set your stuff down int seat 107, front row and center stage, hopping up onto the stage and stand next to their professor. Once everyone was in a circle the professor addresses them. “Take a seat.” She tells them, sitting down on the ground as well. All the students sit down. “Now my name is Marissa Combs, though most of my students call me ‘teacher’. We shall begin by introducing ourselves.” She looks at you. “Why don’t you start us off, seeing as you are the class TA.”

You nod. “Alright. My name is (y/n), though I have been given the nickname Kat. Either works for me. I’m a Psychology major minoring in Accounting and Theater Production. I have my Associates in Makeup Artist and I’m working on getting my Bachelors in it and everyday I like to ride horses, work on computers, play video games and edit videos.”

The other students introduce themselves, following a similar format that you used and halfway around the circle it’s the guys turn.

The oldest looking gent with a nice handlebar mustache goes first. “My name is Geoff. I’m a Computer Science major concentrating in Video Game Programing and I too like to play video games and edit video.”

The other guys say basically the same thing: Ryan, the handsome and yet creepy gent, is a Computer Science with a minor in Accounting; Jack, the bearded gent, is a C.S. major with a minor in Business Management; Ray, the hispanic lad, is a C.S. major minoring in International Studies; Michael, the red headed lad, is just a C.S. major; Gavin, the British lad, is a C.S. and Film Production double major. They all share a love for video games and seem good at editing videos they make.

They soon finish all of the introductions. Teacher stands up. “Since this is an acting and theater class, I guess you should some of what we do here.” She rounds and faces you. “Why don’t you show them the thing?”

Your brows shoot up. “You sure? There are a few thing we have to work out before the production.”

“You’ll be fine.” Teacher ushers everyone into the audience, most of them just taking the seat in which their backpacks are in.

“If you say so.” You stand and pull the curtains back, revealing a climbing structure that has many levels, some of which were interconnected, and the whole structure stands about 25 feet high. You walk over to it, noting that some changes have been made. “Did Kerry change some things?” You ask as you pull yourself up onto a bar. 

“Just some minor changes for the others.” Teacher explains, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Very well.” You jump off the bar, grabbing another one and swing up to grab onto another bar, climbing up to the next level before continuing to move around the structure like you were going to during the performance. As you continue you start to feel your hands become slick from sweat. You jump down, rolling to lessen the bow and make your way over to your backpack, slightly frowning when you see that the guys were in the front row and more specifically that Ryan was sitting in your seat. You kneel down, plucking your bag from the ground and retrieves your chalk bag from it.

“Would anyone be brave enough to try it out themselves?” Teacher turns to look at the class, noticing how no one was looking at her.

“If anyone can keep up with me, I’ll buy them lunch.” You say, clipping the bag to your belt.

Michael stands up in a second. “Oh you’re so on.”

You give him a quick once over, noting his well toned arms.“We’ll see how long you last.” You smirk, back flipping up by kicking back, narrowly missing hitting Michael in the face.

“Hey! Watch what the fuck you’re doing!” He cries.

You move over to the structure, patting some chalk onto your hands before leaping up onto one of the bars. “Sorry,” You smirk down at him. “You don’t like it then do something about it.”

“Oh you’re so fucking dead when I get you.” Michael pulls himself up onto a bar, following after you as you leap from bar to bar with ease, swinging around. Michael keeps up well but his balance was a bit off as he struggles to stay on the bars. You slip down a few levels as Michael leaps up, reaching for one of the top bars but comes up short. “Shit,” He gasps as he begins to plummet towards the ground. Several other people gasp but his body jerks as you grab his hand, holding onto a bar but by doing so it jerks your shoulder painfully and you just grit your teeth in pain. He tightly grips your hand, hurriedly climbing onto the bar. Once he’s safely sitting on he looks at you. “Um, thanks.”

“Your balance is off.” You say, trying to ignore the pain in your shoulder. “You need to have a good sense of where your center of gravity is and where it’s going so you can better keep your balance while leaping from bar to bar.”

“That sounds hard.”

“It really isn’t. Here, stand up.” You watch as Michael stands up next to you, holding onto the bar. “You want to try to keep your weight centered over your feet when your standing. For the most part, your center of gravity will be wherever your chest is so when you go to leap, try to keep it half way between your outstretched arms and your legs. Also utilize any momentum you have and keep it going through your motions; you have good strength so use it to your advantage. Why don’t you try to make it up there?” You motion to a bar that is up one level and directly across from you two, a ten foot distance to leap.

“Ok,” Michael looks at the bar, swinging back and forth a bit before leaping off the bar, extending a hand and grabs the bar. He swings up to it, squatting on the bar. He looks down at you, smiling. “That’s so fucking cool.”

You force a smile, gently holding your shoulder. “Yup.”

“In this class,” Teacher begins, catching everyone’s attention. You and Michael climb down, walking over and sitting down on the edge of the stage. “Whatever productions we put on I expect you to put all your effort into it and that includes any stunts that may be involved. Now we won’t do anything as intricate as that,” She motions to the metal structure. “But you should easily be able to do fight scenes and what not. (Y/n) is here to help you, so feel free to approach her with any questions you may have.” Students move to stand up, thinking that class was over. “One more thing before you all scurry off.” The students stop, looking at Teacher. “Even though it is not outlined in the syllabus, this is actually a student taught class so not only is (y/n) your TA but also your immediate teacher; I’m just here to supervise and offer extra assistance.” All the students turn to look at you and you smile and wave. “You are free to go.”

Half the class immediately leaves while some stay behind to ask Teacher a few questions. You stand up, holding your shoulder. “Motherfucker,” You swear.

Michael glances over at you. “You ok?”

“Just tweaked my shoulder is all.”

“Oh. Sorry.” He says, looking a little guilty.

“It’s nothing you need to apologize for.” You rotate your shoulder around, moving it around to see where it hurt the worst.

The other guys climb up onto the stage and Ryan looks at you. “You sure you’re ok?”

You nod. “Thankfully it’s not dislocated; I’m just not used to catching a 180 pound guy like that.”

“I’m actually quite surprised you didn’t dislocate it.” Geoff hums.

“Years of gymnastics and parkour has taught me how to not severely damage myself doing something.” When your shoulder feels somewhat better you pick up your bag, slinging it over your shoulder to the other one.

Ryan looks at you again, also picking up his bag. “You said you’re taking an Accounting minor?”

“That’s correct.”

“You wouldn’t happen to be taking ACT 230 would you?”

“With Professor Woodridge at 11?” you ask.

“That’s the one.”

“Then the answer is yes.”

“Awesome. I’ve been trying to find someone else who’s taking that class as well.” Ryan says as you all slowly make your way out of the theater. “Have you looked over the first homework assignment?”

“Briefly,” You pull on your sunglasses. “I was going to look it over more tonight.”

“Do you want to meet up and do it together?”

“Sure.”

“Um, I hate to butt in but I still get that lunch yeah?” Michael asks.

You glance back at him. “Well, you did keep up well so I guess you earned it.”

“Fuck yeah.” Michael fist bumps.

You slightly laugh, realizing that your earlier judgment of the guys was way off. “So you’re all Computer Science geeks huh?” You make your way across the plaza, heading into the student center. 

“Yeah we’re just a bunch of losers.” Jack jokes as you all find a table and it down. 

You take your sunglasses off, setting them on top of your head. “Do you all do anything else than play video games?”

“Sometimes we help this idiot with his videos.” Geoff nudges Gavin.

“That’s only when Dan and I can’t do everything by ourselves.” the British man retorts.

Ray looks at you. “So basically no.”

“I’ve got a question for you.” Jack turns to face you.

“Shoot.” you pull your water bottle out of your bag, taking several sips of the cold liquid.

“Well first, are you a sophomore?”

“Credit wise technically but this is actually my first year at this school so you could say that I’m a freshman.”

“So since you are a freshman how did you get to be a TA for this class, let alone be able to teach it?”

“Ah yes.” You set the bottle down on the table, leaning back in your chair. “Well I’ve known Teacher ever since I was a little girl; she’s a family friend and she’s taught me everything I know about theater as well as help me with my make up artistry. The whole student taught class is a thing she does- even if I wasn’t teaching the class she would still take a back seat and let the class decide almost everything; the only notable difference between that and this is that in that situation Teacher would be directing all the plays and one acts we do whereas in actuality I’ll be directing everything.”

Ryan raises a brow. “That’s a lot for a freshman to do.”

You turn to look at him. “I was student director all four years at my high school as well as I assisted Teacher in some of her actual productions she’s put on, one of them being a Broadway show.”

Ryan’s brows shoot up more. “You help direct a Broadway show?”

You smirk, crossing your arms over your chest. “Yup. And I got to meet some of the biggest names in Broadway.”

“Lucky,” Ryan huffs.

“That’s really cool.” Gavin says.

You nod. “That’s why Teacher is letting me do this; she knows that I can handle it and it’s a good learning experience.” You glance down at your watch. “Hey we should go.” you look at Ryan.

He also glances at the time. “Right.” You two stand up, grabbing your bags. “See you all for lunch.”

“Later theater freaks.” Michael calls as you two leave the student center.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a picture of what Flame looks like https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/88/46/60/88466024160bd09acb2158d0e7f52a52.jpg  
> The campus in the story is based of CSU's campus in Fort Collins, since that's where I'm getting my undergrad at.  
> As always, feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts, questions or suggestions. Thanks and enjoy.

You and Ryan meet back up the guys for a quick lunch before you have to go to your 1pm Human Physiology class. You hear rumors at how difficult it is but you don’t think you’ll have much of a problem- you’re taking the recitation along with the class and you are fascinated with the human body, though you hope you don’t burn yourself out.When class ends, you make your way outside to find the guys waiting for you.

“You guys following me now?” You ask as you walk over and unlock your bike.

“Maybe,” Geoff shrugs. “But you and Ryan have that hot study date so.” He slightly laughs as Ryan punches him in the arm.

“You’re an ass.” The sandy haired blond says.

“Oh right. How about,” you glance down at your watch, seeing that it was 2. “Fuck,” 

Ray raises a brow. “How about fuck?”

“I mean if you’re offering love.” Gavin jokes.

“No.” You let out an irritated huff as you begin speed walking across the plaza. The guys trail after you. “I have to run back to my dorm to change and then I have to go take care of my babies.”

Jack cocks a brow up. “Your babies?”

“The horses for the polo team.” You glance down at your phone when you receive a text and you let out another annoyed huff. “And I have to head to the mechanic to pick up my motorcycle before I can even head over there.”

“We can give you a lift.” Geoff suggests. 

You glance over at him. “You sure? I don’t want to impose on you guys.”

“Who ever said that you’re imposing?” Michael slings an arm over your shoulder. “It’s what friends do. And besides, we can see how much shit Gav’s been telling us about taking care of horses and what not.”

You’re a little surprised when Michael says that you all were friends- you didn’t make friends very easily and you only have a few very close friends, all of which have been girls so to have guy friends was a new concept to you. But you promised yourself that you would try new things in college and you guess that this was a step forward. “Ok. If you say so.” You soon arrive at your dorm. You lock your bike up before quickly running into your room to drop off your bag and change into the clothes you’ve set aside specifically for the stables. You throw on a red flannel shirt over one of your older tanktops, slipping into a part of blue jeans before pulling on a pair of boots. You pack a change of clothes in a small bag, also shoving the books you need in there before making sure that you have your phone, wallet and keys and then you make your way back outside. The guys look up as you make your way over to them.

“Looky here fellas.” Michael says with a Texas cowboy accent. “We’ve got one of ‘em country folk.”

“Hardy har har.” You slightly shove the lad. “You clearly never worked in a stable before.”

Michael shakes his head. “None of us have, except Gavin but we think he’s just making up bullshit.”

“Right.” You follow the guys to where they parked their two cars, one the lads came in and the other the gents came in. You look between the two cars, unsure of which car to get in and slide into the backseat of the gents car along with Ryan. You roll the window down when Geoff starts the car.

He pulls out of the parking lot with Michael following after him and you give them directions to the stables. It was a good distance from the school but the stables wasn’t just for the school; it was a privately owned stable where the owner and the school have an agreement between them so there’s that. Geoff pulls into one of the spots and Michael parks next to him. You and the guys climb out of the vehicles and you start to head towards the barn. You notice Stephanie bringing your horse, Flame, back from the pasture. 

“Hey Steph.” You call, waving your hand.

Stephanie and your horse look over at you and she drops the lead as your horse trots over to you, circling around you and the guys, nuzzling you.

You slightly laugh. “Yes hi.” You pet his muzzle before hopping up onto his bare back. You lean forward, laying on his neck. “How’s my boy doing huh?”

“He’s been acting like a spoiled brat.” Stephanie says, making her way over to you guys. She looks at the guys. “Hi. I’m Stephanie.”

“I’m Geoff. That’s Jack, Ryan, Michael, Ray and Gavin.” Geoff introduces everyone.

“Pleasure.” Steph looks over at you, noticing how Flame is slowly making his way towards the corral. “Looks like he’s itching for some exercise. You want me to grab your saddle?”

You shake your head. “Nah. Just open the gate.” Stephanie smiles, walking over and opening the gate, holding it open. “Come on Flame; let’s show them what you’ve got.” Flame rears up slightly before taking off into the corral as you hold onto his mane, the lead resting across your lap.

Stephanie closes the gate, sitting on top as the guy come to stand next to her, all of them watching you and Flame navigate the obstacles, clearing the jumps with practiced ease and nimbly rounding barrels. Geoff lets out a low whistle. “Damn,”

“I’ve never seen a rider and steed move like that.” Gavin comments.

“Neither have I.” Stephanie says. “(Y/n) and Flame have a very special bond that is hard to find between a rider and steed. I mean sure, there is a bond that forms but (y/n)’s is on a whole other level.”

“What do you mean ‘it’s on a whole other level’?” Michael asks, glancing up at her.

Stephanie shakes her head. “It’s hard to explain but you can see it.”

“She’s really good.” Jack comments as they continue to watch you.

“Yeah and that’s why I won’t be surprised is she gets named captain of the polo team.” Stephanie hops down off the gate, opening it as you walk Flame over to them.

“You weren’t gossiping about me were you?” You ask, looking at Stephanie.

“No. I would never.” She smiles at you. “Ok, maybe just a little but it was all good things I swear.”

You roll your eyes. “It better be.” You lead Flame into the barn, dismounting him and walks over to the bench, plucking up a brush. You make your way back over to Flame and begin to brush him down.

Gavin skips over to you, standing in front of Flame and holds out a sugar cube in his hand. “Why hello there.” Flame sniffs his hand before plucking the cube out of his hand. Gavin smiles, petting his head. “Oh yes you are beautiful.”

“If you make him fat from giving him too many sweets I’ll hurt you.” You tell the British lad, glancing up from where you were kneeling, brushing his legs.

“It’s just one sugar cube.” Gavin walks over to the bench and picks up a hoof pick. He makes his way back over to Flame, addressing the horse. “Do you mind if I clean your hooves?” Flame snorts, nodding his head. “Cheers boy.” He moves over, picking up Flame’s left front hoof and begins to clean it.

“Gavin, did you seriously just ask the horse permission to do something?” Ray asks.

“Of course I did.” Gavin glances over at them. “If you don’t respect them then they won’t respect you.”

“That and you really don’t want to be on the receiving end of a kick from them.” You stand up, brushing down Flame’s back. “Horses can kick anywhere between zero and 2000 pounds per square inch and seeing as Flame’s hooves are 21 inches, well you can do the math.” You glance back when you hear one of the polo horses bang into the stall door, neighing up a storm. “Calm your shit Gizmo; I hear you.” You turn back to Gavin. “Do you think you could finish up brushing him, cleaning his hooves and giving him a quick rinse?”

Gavin sets Flame’s hoof down on the ground. “Yeah sure.”

“Thanks.” You turn and head towards Gizmo’s stall. “You put a dent in the door and you won’t get oats for a week.” Gizmo calms down and a few minutes later you’re leading him out to the pasture soon followed by the other polo horses. You set about cleaning out the stalls, mucking out the soiled wood chips into a wheelbarrow to take outback. Geoff and Michael stay with Gavin, helping him clean Flame while Ryan, Jack and Ray follow you around, helping you wheel the soiled chips outside to be disposed of and then help you lay down new wood chips. Ryan seemed the most comfortable in the barn. “So Ryan, when’s the last time you worked in a barn?” you asks as you level the wood chips.

“Hmm,” Ryan thinks. “Probably back in highschool when I would help out my uncle on his farm.”

“Where was that at?”

“Butt fuck nowhere Georgia.” Ray says, pushing another wheelbarrow for Jack.

Ryan shrugs. “Basically. I grew up in a rural area where everyone knew everyone. It was nice but sometimes it sucked to go somewhere and everyone would recognize you.”

“Ah,” You smirk, putting on your best Southern accent. “So you’re a Southern boy?”

Ryan slightly laughs. “Yeah you could say that.”

“What about you two?” You glance over at Ray and Jack.

“I grew up in New York so I’m a city boy.” Ray sets the wheelbarrow down. “Never really did go outside much to like camp and shit.”

“I also lived in the city but my dad would take me out to go dirt biking and we camped a lot.” Jack finishes his last stall. “I like the outdoors; it’s so nice. What about you?” He asks as they all follow you.

“Born and raised here.” You say, hanging up the shovels and rakes while Ryan and Ray put back the good chips. “Well, not here in Fort Collins but here in Colorado. Born in the Springs and raised up in Woodland Park before moving back to the Springs because of my mom’s work. Spent my whole life up in these mountains, camping and hiking and there’s no other place I’d rather be.”

“No wait. I’m not done drying you!” Gavin calls.

You turn around to see what the commotion was about only to be shoved backwards with some force. Luckily you did fall to the ground but you were shoved up against Ryan because of Flame, who was still a bit wet. “Flame, calm down will ya?” You gently shove his head away, realizing that Ryan had wrapped his arms around you to keep you up right. “Did you get bored of your new friend?” Flame snorts, hoofing the ground. “I’ll get ya dinner once I’m done here ok?” Flame shakes his head. “Go get dried off you brat.” Flame neighs, trotting around Gavin.

Ryan releases you as you take a step away. “You ok?”

You nod. “Yeah I’m fine. I’m used to him shoving and nosing me to get my attention, the spoiled brat.” You clean out the wheelbarrows, drying them before moving over to the feed station, preparing Flame’s and the other polo horse’s dinner. Gavin finally finished drying Flame off before the stallion noses you and lightly tugs on your shirt.

Michael slightly laughs. “He’s like a little kid.”

“A little kid that you now get to deal with.” You shove the bucket into his hands.

“What?” Michael stares down at the bucket before looking up as Flame shoves his head into the bucket, nudging it closer to him with some force. “Hey. Slow down.” Michael holds tightly onto the bucket.

You pick up a bucket of oats, heading to the pasture. You shake the bucket, getting the attention of the polo horses and they follow you back into the barn, getting them back into their stalls before feeding them as well. Stephanie comes over to you, draping an arm over your shoulder. “Well I was going to see if you needed any help but seems like you’ve got everything under control you freakin horse whisperer.”

You shake your head, shrugging her arm off. “I’m not a horse whisperer.” You move back to the feed station, rinsing out the buckets and drying them. 

“Oh really?” Stephanie raises a brow.

“Yes really.” You lead Flame to his stall, putting his light blanket on before closing the door. 

“Whatever you say.” Stephanie waves. “Well I’ll see you later.”

“Later.” You wave as you and the guys leave the barn. You all head towards the cars. “So where to now?”

“Well you and Ryan still have that study date.” Ray points out.

“We can head back to the house and study there, if it’s alright with you.” Ryan says, looking over at you.

“Sounds good to me.” You climb into the back of Geoff’s car.

“Well guys, let’s roll out.” Geoff says, starting the car.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Link for the woman headshot: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/80/bc/4f/80bc4fe847d7d9b97379e7d09951c296.jpg  
> Here is "your" schedule and R means Thursday: MWF: Theater 220 9-9:50am; ACT 230 11-11:50am; MWRF: BMS 300 1-1:50pm; T: BMS 200 1-1:50pm; TR: Make-up 340 9-10:50am, PSY 352 2-3:15pm, PSY 320 3:30-4:45pm  
> Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts, questions, or suggestions. I would really appreciate it if you also leave a comment with play suggestions- I have some ideas but I want to hear what you guys think/would like to see. Thanks and enjoy.

You stay at the guy’s house until eight, spending the first two hours working with Ryan on your accounting homework before you all crowd the living room, playing video games. Geoff drives you back to your dorm and you do a few things before going to bed, seeing as Tuesdays and Thursdays were your busy days. You get up again at 7:45 to get breakfast before heading over to the makeup studio, which was next to the theater. You've heard and read good things about your professor, Burnie Burns, and you know he’s good from having worked with him on a Broadway play. By the time Burnie shows up there are twenty students there including yourself.

Burnie sets his briefcase down on the desk. “Alright class, let’s get started.” He picks up a piece of chalk, writing on the chalkboard his name and the course name. “I hope you all have paid the class fee because I’ll be handing out your makeup kits that you are required to bring to every class and any projects you do outside of class.” Once he finishes handing out the kits, he pulls out a gold statue, setting it on the desk. “Now some of you may know that Gus Sorola is teaching the other section of this class and we found that even with our extensive way of accepting people there are those people who don’t do anything, so last year we came up with this,” He motions to the statue. “This is a trophy of sorts- whoever holds the Golden Gus can turn it in at any time to get out of a written assignment or a written exam and it’s a way of showing who is at the top of the class. The rest of you, you should make it your mission to destroy the person with the trophy. Now some of you may think that I’m an asshole by not letting you turn it in to get out of any actual projects-and it’s true that I am and can be an asshole, but you will thank me in the long run for forcing you to do them. And continuing on with me being an asshole, I’m already going to hand the trophy out. (Y/n), come claim your prize.” He picks up the statue and holds it out to you.

You blink, standing up and take the trophy from him. “Thank you?”

“Out of all of the portfolios and resumes we looked over, you’re was one of the best. That and I know how you work from when we worked together on Broadway.” Burnie says. The other students mutter to themselves as you take your seat again. “Now, let’s get started. For your first assignment that’s due before the end of the period, I want you to give me a concept design of a natural beauty makeup, a more angelic fairytale kind of makeup and a demonic makeup for this actor.” Burnie puts up a headshot of a woman. ( [ https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/80/bc/4f/80bc4fe847d7d9b97379e7d09951c296.jpg ](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/80/bc/4f/80bc4fe847d7d9b97379e7d09951c296.jpg) )

You stand up and take a picture of the headshot with your phone before returning to your seat, pulling out your sketchbook and start drawing your ideas out. You are the first to finish, walking over to Burnie after about an hour and hand him your sketchbook.

“Done already?” He takes it from you, leaning up against his desk.

“It’s an easy task and I sketch quickly.” You say with a shrug.

Burnie hums, scribbling down some notes before handing you back your sketchbook along with a piece of paper. “Here is your next assignment due next class period. Have a good day.”

“Thank you.” You grab your bag and head to the library, plopping down in one of the more comfortable chairs with your ear buds in, reading over your next assignment- it was another concept assignment but this time you had to do a full body design. You start sketching the model you’ve been assigned, quickly deciding to do a zombie makeup. You get wrapped up in your drawing that you don’t see people come over to you, jumping when someone places their hand on your shoulder. You stare up at the person, pulling out your earbuds as you see Michael standing there with Gavin and Ray. “Jesus. Don’t fucking do that.” You look down at your drawing, frowning as you see a line jerked across your drawing.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Michael says as they sit down at your table. He eyes your sketchbook. “What’s that?”

“It’s for my makeup class.” You pick up your eraser, removing the unwanted line. “Though it’s not finished yet.”

Gavin leans across the table looking at it. “That’s so cool. Can you actually make that?”

“Sure. Couple of face and arm prosthetics and a good amount of makeup and you have yourself a zombie.”

“Wicked.”

“So what are you all doing here?” You close your book as to not mess up your sketch.

Michael shrugs. “Just chilling out before our next class.”

Ray leans back in the chair. “Oh, do you have a copy of your schedule?” You give him a confused look. “Geoff wants to have it so he can schedule game nights and shit.”

“Sure,” You quickly scribble down your schedule, handing it to the hispanic lad.

“Jesus,” Ray looks over your schedule. “Could you be any busier?”

“That’s not including when I have polo practice, taking care of the horses, theater practices, and Saturday makeup projects.”

Gavin blinks, staring at the paper in Ray’s hands. “You will have no life.”

“No I will; it’ll just be consumed by school.” You counter.

“You’re bloody mental taking 18 credits and doing all that.”

You shrug. “I can manage.”

“But Gav you forget that she’s got us and we’ll make sure that she takes some time off to play video games.” Michael tells him.

“You’re right.”

You shake your head, looking at the time. “Well I have to go to class.” You pack up your bag. “Later boys.” You give a two-fingered salute as you leave the library.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts, questions or suggestions.

By the time Friday rolls around you basically have the entire semester planned out- every exam, assignment, theater rehearsal, play production and every match you have all written down in your planner. You also have written down all the games for the football team, the soccer team, the swim team, and the ultimate frisbee team, both the home and away games. You do this after finding out that Ryan, Geoff and Michael are on the football team, Gavin’s on the soccer team, Ray’s  on the swim team and Jack’s on the ultimate frisbee team. You were a bit surprised when you find out that Ryan is the quarterback; you would have suspected Michael to be the quarterback but after spending time with them, you notice that Ryan thinks things through, calculating different outcomes and choosing the best choice and you can see how that makes him a good quarterback.

You arrive early to the theater Friday morning, sitting down in your seat and you pull out your laptop, looking through the assignments submitted online. The assignment was fairly simple: turn in a list of plays you would be interested in doing. And still some people couldn’t even do that. Still, you make a spreadsheet of all the suggested plays, putting a mark next to the name as they appear. You’re not surprised to see several Shakespearean plays but you’re a little hesitant to do a Shakespeare play- it would be easy and it’s the most typical thing to do. Even though at the end of the day you decide what play is going to be put on, you like to get feedback from the students to see what they’re interested in so you don’t choose a play that they’re all going to hate. Glancing up, you watch the guys make their way over to you. “Morning boys.” You finish the spreadsheet, saving it before closing your laptop.

Geoff grumbles, laying down on the stage. “Fuck the morning.”

You raise a brow. “What’s wrong? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”

“Nah. He’s just sore and annoyed that he got his ass kicked yesterday during practice.” Michael tells you, sipping on his drink.

“I’m not usually one to complain but the coach was a bit harsh on everyone yesterday.” Ryan says, rubbing his shoulder.

“You know who he wasn’t hard with? Fucking Thomas.” Geoff turns to look at them. “Fucking bastard. I was seriously going to fucking knock him the fuck out if he hit me one more time.”

“Well no shit he went easy on Thomas.” Michael rolls his eyes.

“Isn’t he the coach’s son?” Ray asks around a mouth full of food.

“You make a mess and I’ll make you clean the whole theater.” You tell Ray.

“Yeah, the dickhead can get away with just about anything.” Michael finishes his drink.

Jack nods. “Which is why I was surprised that Ryan was announced quarterback; I thought for sure that Thomas would get it.”

“One of the reasons why he wasn’t is because the guy is an idiot and can’t think quickly.” Ryan pulls out his breakfast burrito. “That and if the coach named him quarterback the whole team would have had a fit, saying that Thomas was getting special treatment over them, which he still is but it’s a bit bearable seeing as coach is harder on him during games.” He pulls out a second burrito and offers it to you. “You hungry?”

You go to politely decline but your stomach growls in protest and you take the offered burrito. “Thanks.” The rest of the students filter in and you hop up onto the stage, sitting on it so you were facing them all. Geoff moves so that his head is resting in your lap as you begin eating, watching people give you and Geoff weird looks but you ignore them- you find that you’re oddly very comfortable around all of the guys, letting them use you as a pillow, using them as pillows and generally being in each other's personal space. You’ve never gotten this comfortable with people before, especially guys, and it usually takes you several months before you let someone lightly touch you and use your stuff and several more months after that before you’re this comfortable with them. But hang out with the guys, you find it very easy to be comfortable around them.

You finish the burrito before addressing the class. “Good morning everyone. I looked over your assignments and I’m a little disappointed to see that some of you didn’t even do it but I did get some good input from those of you who did it so thank you. Based on what I’ve seen I’ve decided that for this semester we will be doing the play ‘ _ A Doll’s House’ _ by Henrik Ibsen. I know some of you might not like this play and would like to do something else, but tough shit. I can’t make everyone happy and this is a play you all should know, so get over it and do your part. And speaking of parts,” You try to grab your bag from the ground but Geoff’ head on your lap makes it impossible to do so. “Geoff, you’re going to have to move.”

“Not going to happen.”

You sigh, slightly glaring down at the gent. “Really Geoff? I’m trying to run a class.”

“Tough shit.”

Ryan shakes his head, handing you your bag. “He’s always a pain in the ass after a tough practice.”

“That and during a hangover.” Gavin adds.

You thank Ryan, pulling out a large bundle of paper. “Since Geoff is being a lazy ass, can you all pass these out?” You separate the papers into two stacks, hand one to Ryan and Gavin.

“Sure,” Both men stand and quickly distribute the papers.

“This is the character list for the play with your next assignment attached. I need you to fill out the paperwork, indicating if you want to be front of house or backstage, listing what characters you’re interested in if you want to be on stage or what backstage work you would like to do. Keep in mind that there are some other minor characters that need people but most of them are a couple of lines so it’s very likely that you could play a minor character while working backstage. Once you’ve turned that into me,” You pull out another large stack of papers. “I will hand you a script. This will be the only one I’m giving you so if you lose it it’s up to you to get another copy.” Students start to quickly scribble down on the paper, moving to hand it to you. “Oh and one more important thing,” Everyone stills. “We will be having auditions tomorrow for these roles at 8 am sharp. If you don’t show up, then I can’t guarantee you will get a role you want and more than likely I will have you moving set pieces and what not. For those of you who have athletic events tomorrow, everything should be over by noon but you all can go first tomorrow if you want.”

By 9:30 almost everyone has turned in their assignment and most have left while the few that linger are reading over the script, asking you a few questions as to what you’re looking for in auditions and you tell them to act how they think the character would act and sound. You pack the papers away when class is over and you think over all the roles, having some ideas as who would be good at what, but there is one role that you haven’t told people about and it’s probably the most important: the assistant director. True, you could do everything, but with your full schedule, you know you would burn out real fast so it’s almost essential for you to have an AD, but you’re not sure who could fill that position. You constantly think about this the rest of the day and even into the night when you’re hanging out at the guys house, drinking and playing video games. The thought really doesn’t leave, even at 11 pm and you can barely keep your eyes open.

“I think I should be going guys.” You yawn, moving to stand up.

Jack glances over at the time. “It’s kinda late and we’re all tired. Why don’t you just stay the night?”

You glance around. “You sure?”

Geoff nods. “We all have to get up stupid early tomorrow anyways for the auditions so it’s all good.”

“Ok. Thanks.” You lay down on the couch, head propped up by a pillow and you don’t realize you’ve fallen asleep until you feel a blanket being draped over you. You glance up, looking around the dark room and you watch a figure make their way up the stairs and when they disappear into a bedroom, you realize that it was Ryan. You blush, realizing that you must have passed out and he came down to check up on you.

Auditions go really quickly and you get everyone's consent before recording them, wanting to have it to refer back to before making your final decision. You get done a little after 11 and you go with the guys to the football game, cheering with Gavin and Ray for their team. Unfortunately, Jack had practice, but you and Gavin sent him plenty pictures and you all celebrate their victory with a night out on the town.

Sunday and Monday you spend all day going over the auditions again, assigning people the best roles possible and you're thankful that Monday is a holiday so you could just get that and your other homework done. You're a little nervous when you post the role sheet online and send out an email, letting people know that some names aren't on there because some people didn't show up or they dropped the class and you would work with them on getting them a job. One name that wasn't on the sheet was Ryan's and you're not sure how he's going to react. You don't see him until Wednesday and you can tell that he's mad from the way he's ignoring you and you don't have time to talk to him in class, talking with the backstage people about what their jobs exactly entail and helping Teacher assign minor characters. He doesn't show up for your accounting class and you’re sure that he's purposefully avoiding you.

The next opportunity you get to talk to Ryan is Thursday when Stephanie calls you to tell you first, that they hired another stable hand and that you wouldn't have to come in as much to take care of the horses and second, that polo practice was canceled because the horses were getting checked out and being updated with their vaccinations. She calls you at 3 and you know that football practice was about to start, so you make your way over to the gym, making your way into the locker room. Most of the players were already changed but they stare and some make inappropriate comments. You quickly find Geoff.

"Hey Geoff." You call.

The gent turns around. "(Y/n)? The hell are you doing in here?"

"Have you seen Ryan?"

"Oh. Look I'm not sure-"

"Fuck Geoff, I know that he's mad at me, but he doesn't know why I didn't give him the main role and I just need to talk to him." You interrupt him.

"Um," Geoff looks behind you. You turn around to see Ryan there, a towel wrapped around his waist and water droplets decorate his skin. You and Ryan stare at each other, neither saying a word and you could feel the tension in the air. "Let's move it boys." Geoff tells the other players. "We have practice and if you're not outside in the next minute, I'll kick your ass." He shoos the players out of the locker room, leaving you and Ryan alone.

Ryan moves over to his locker, grabbing his underwear and pants before heading back to the bathroom. "Are you going to continue to ignore me?" You asks, irritation slowly turning into anger.

"Don't you have practice?" Ryan asks, coming back out and trades out the towel for his shirt.

“Practice was canceled. You want to talk about what’s on your mind?” You cross your arms over your chest.

“Do I want to…” Ryan scoffs, pulling his shirt on. “Should we talk about how you overlooked me and gave all the parts to people who don’t know shit about theater? Or would you like to talk about the fact that you didn’t give me any role, on stage or backstage? Or should we skip those all together and talk about how you’re a total bitch by not-”

“I didn’t give you a fucking role is because I want you to be my assistant director!” You interrupt him. “And if you fucking  _ talked _ to me, hell even sent me a text, I could have told you as much but no!” You wave your hands in front of you. “You had to be a bitch baby and throw a silent temper tantrum just because you didn’t get the part you wanted.”

Ryan stare at you, clearly taken back by your words. “You...you want me to be your AD?”

“That is what I said dipshit.”

Ryan opens his mouth, sounds coming out like he was trying to say something but never actually forms any words. Ryan closes his mouth, thinking while frowning at you. “Why?”

You blink, confused by his simple question. “Why what?”

“Why me?”

“Like you said before, you know a shit ton about theater, so you know how things should look and what not. Besides, you’re probably one of the few, if not the only, person I could stand having as my AD without killing them halfway through the semester.”

“I...I don’t know what to say.” 

You sigh. “Tell me you’ll take the job otherwise I might as well just shoot myself in the head right now.”

Ryan looks at you. “I’d love to be your AD.”

“Good.” You punch him in the arm.

“Ow,” Ryan rubs the wounded spot. “What was that for?”

“For being a pain in my ass.”

Ryan nods, picking up his gear and moves towards the door, stopping to look back at you. “You uh...you wanna stay for practice? Afterwards we can go get dinner, my treat for being ‘a pain in the ass’.”

You think about it, going through all the things you have to do and decide that they can wait another day. “Fine,” You follow after him. “But we aren’t going some place quick and cheap. I’m in the mood for some sushi.”

“Whatever you say, princess.” Ryan smiles, jogging away before you could hit him again.

You tug on your sunglasses, sitting down on the bleachers and you set your backpack down next to you. You watch the team finish up their drills before moving onto some game play strategies, watching Ryan command the team and everyone moving almost as one. You pull out your sketchbook, doing some quick sketches of Ryan holding the ball before throwing it to Michael who’s quick on his feet and ducks around his teammates, only being sacked at the twenty yard line. You do other sketches of Michael running, Geoff blocking and catching the ball and one of Ryan punting the ball. You look up as the metal of the bleachers creak and you see Ray making his way over to you, his hair still wet from swim practice. “Hey Ray.”

“Sup.” Ray plops down next to you. “So, word on the street is that you and Ryan made up.”

“Yes, we actually talked and he’s gotten over the fact that I didn’t give him any roles.”

Ray raises a brow. “He has?”

“Well, I guess it helped when I told him I want him as my assistant director.” You look at Ray.

Ray slightly laughs. “Oh man. I totally called it.”

You raise a brow. “How so?”

“I told Rye that you weren’t going to give him a role because you’re so overworked and he knows a lot about theater that it’s basically a waste to give him a lead role as opposed to being AD or something like that.” Ray laughs again. “Now Gavin owes me 50 bucks.”

“You made a bet on this?”

“Yeah. Gavin makes stupid bets.” You shake your head, turning your attention back to your sketches. Ray glances over. "Wow. Did you just do this?"

"Yeah. I'm a quick sketcher."

Ray plucks the book off your lap, flipping through it. Most of them are designs for your makeup class but there are some of them. One that catches Ray’s eye is one of Geoff from Friday. He notices the date stamp, putting it at Wednesday. “Did you draw this from memory?” he asks.

You nod. “I have a shit memory aside from being able to remember lines for a play and dates, but I have this...kind of talent for being able to sketch things from memory if I picture the moment how I would sketch it.”

“That’s really cool.” Ray hands you back the book as the football team heads back to the locker room. “Well it looks like practice is over.” You and Ray wait outside of the locker room, talking about the new games that were going to come out and which ones you were interested in playing. Ryan, Geoff and Michael are one of the firsts to leave, Ray going with the other two players to find Gavin while you and Ryan head out to get dinner.

You know of a good sushi place that is almost right next to campus so you and Ryan walk across campus. You forget that you’re holding your sketchbook until Ryan points it out. “Oh this?” You hold up the book. “It’s just my sketchbook.”

“Can I look at it?” Ryan asks.

You shrug, handing it over. “I don’t see why not.”

Ryan flips the book open, first looking at your design sketches before getting to the ones of them, looking at the one you just drew of him. “Is that really what I look like during a game?”

“I’m not sure about during a game but during practice you do. Your brows knit together like that whenever you’re thinking through different plays and choosing the best one. And you tighten your grip more when you go to throw the ball or when you anticipate being sacked. And you get this look in your eyes that makes them shine whenever you make a touchdown and,” You glance up to see Ryan smiling at you. “What?”

“You see the smallest of details.”

“Of course. It’s kinda my job to do that. Just look at Michael,” You flip to the next page. “Whenever he has the ball, he gets this hard look of determination. And when he doesn’t have the ball, he keeps his eyes moving around, watching the opposing players and moves so gracefully.” Ryan laughs and you frown. "What so funny?"

"Just the fact that you say Michael moves gracefully." You open your mouth to protest but Ryan continues. "Sure, he may move that way on the field but it doesn’t transition over. Shame really, because he and Gavin are clumsily destructive."

"Yeah, whatever." You take your sketchbook back. You soon arrive at the restaurant and you two have a nice meal together, talking about your experiences and you make him jealous by talking about your time working with Teacher and Burnie on Broadway. "Needless to say, it was the coolest and most terrifying thing I have ever done."

"The funny thing is I almost went to see that play on opening night." Ryan picks up his drink.

"Why didn’t you?" You pick up a piece of sushi with your chopsticks, putting it in your mouth.

“Geoff needed my help moving into the house.”

“Shame. It was a really good play and I was really happy that my makeups came out so well.”

Ryan nods, picking up a piece of meat. “Speaking of your makeup, word around campus is that you’ll need some models for your work.”

You raise a brow. “You offering to be my model?”

“I just hope you know that the guys and I are more than willing to help you out.”

“Well that’s very considerate of you.”

You two soon finish eating and Ryan pays for the meal. You two make your way back to your dorm, discussing possible stage setup for the play.

Ryan turns to face you as you stop outside your building. “Well I believe this is where we part ways, my lady.” He takes your hand and kisses it. “Until tomorrow.”

You smile, slightly blushing. “Adu, my good sir.” You make your way inside to your room, lying down on the bed. With all things considered, today wasn’t the worst day you’ve had, especially since you now had an AD who was very capable, so it was less likely that you would die halfway through the semester.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super long wait. Things just got really busy and my stories got put on the back burner. I will try to work on this when I can.  
> As always, feel free to leave a comment, letting me know what you think and what you might like to see happen next. Thank you and enjoy.

The next week goes by quickly, your work load quickly increasing as your classes get more intense. You spend more and more time at the guy’s house, working with Ryan on your Accounting homework, having them help you with Human Physiology or running through stage cues, lighting effects and prop and set placement. Saturday is the first day your theater class is running through scenes multiple times without having to worry about the time. Though it's only the third week of classes, the first exams of the semester are coming up and you can tell people are stressed. You make it to 11 before you and Ryan have to call everyone to the stage.

"Look guys, I know exams are coming up and papers are due, but you need to focus."

"I'd like to see you try to remember all these lines while studying for three exams and writing two papers." Nick, the lead male, complains, waving his script in the air.

"I'd like to see try to manage 60 other people, making sure the actors remember their fucking lines, checking with the backstage crew to make sure they know where all the sets pieces go, checking with sound and lighting to make sure that they are on the same page as well as study for two exams, write a paper, go to polo practice and make sure I show up to do a major makeup project." You retort, starting to lose your patience. "Don't fucking make excuses as to why you can't sit down for half an hour to memorize some goddamn lines."

"How about we take a small break?" Ryan cuts in, putting a hand on your shoulder to keep you from lunging at anyone. The crew mutters in agreement, scattering as Ryan takes you back to the sound booth where Gavin, Geoff, and Ray sit.

They slide the window that separates them from the audience, Gavin looking at you. "You ok? You looked like you were about to ring that guy's neck."

"A few more minutes and I just might have." You huff, leaning on the windowsill. "It's amazing they think I don't have exams and homework to do just like they do."

"I think they're just a little stressed is all." Ryan says. "It common for big productions like this, especially for people who haven't been in a theater production before."

Michael and Jack make their way over to you all. "Jesus. Everyone is losing their fucking mind." The brunette lad comments. "I had to fight my way out of the angry mob of actors."

"Backstage isn't much better." Jack sighs. "People are anxious about having all the set pieces done by next week."

"It's not so bad for us right now." Geoff says. "But that might change once the set comes into play and we have to program all the lights and what not."

You scrub a hand over your face. "I'm not sure things can get much worse."

"I wouldn’t be so sure about that." You all turn to see Burnie standing there. "Things always go to shit before they get remotely better."

“Who the hell are you?” Michael asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Burnie Burns. I teach most of the upper division makeup classes with Gus Sorola.” Burnie turns to look at you. “So, we have a slight problem.”

You raises a brow. “Oh?”

“We don’t have any models for your project.”

You blink. “What?”

“Yeah. They all backed out the moment they found out they would have to come in on a Saturday so I guess we’ll have to use the people here.” He glances around, looking at your fellow classmates.

“How many people do we have coming in?”

“About thirty between Gus’ and my sections.”

You nod, making you way up onto the stage. “Alright, listen up everyone.” They all turn to look at you. “Since we aren’t going to get much farther in rehearsals today, we are going to help out another class.” You watch the other makeup students enter the theater. You wave them up. “Now, all of us makeup students have a project to do and we need models so actors, get up here.” Reluctantly, all of the actors including Michael make their way onto the stage. You count them, coming up short by ten. “Let’s see...How about we get our own makeup people up here.” Nine more people. “Now we’re just short one.” you mutter.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ryan says, hopping up on the stage to stand next to you. “I’ll be your model.”

You blink at him while other people stare. “Are you sure?”

Ryan shrugs. “I said we’d help you and I meant it.”

Burnie makes his way onto the stage. “Well, now that we got that figured out, artists, set up your stations.”

The other artists grab nearby chairs and tables, placing their kits on them and lays things out. You grab your kit from the seats, setting up stage right in the back, grabbing a stool for Ryan. Once you all finish that, you turn to face Burnie again.

“Now, you all should have your designs from Thursday's class. I want you to take that and make it a full body character, costume included.” Several of the artists groan and complain that it’s unfair that they weren’t told this ahead of time. “Oh stop your whining. Directors do this all the time, either asking you to completely change your concept or to add things. Now for my models, I’m guessing most, if not all, of you haven’t had stage makeup on before. Some of the products we use can cause an allergic reaction and if you start to feel light headed or nauseous, tell your artist, myself or Gus immediately; we will give you medical attention. With that being said,” Burnie glances up as Gus enters the theater with several paramedics. “We’ll have paramedics on standby the whole time so you’ll be in good hands. Any questions?” No one says anything. “Good. You have 90 minutes. Go.”

Gavin hops onto the stage, talking quietly to Burnie before making his way over to you, holding his phone sideways and you know he's recording a video of you but you don't mind. You grab your sketchbook, flipping it to your design and you hand it to Ryan. "So we were given one of five terrains- mountain, swamp, forest, volcano or tundra- and we had to make a demon that lived there. I got the tundra and I didn't want to do a typical demon so I did an ice king incubus."

Ryan looks at you, a brow arched. "An incubus? Really?"

"You won't be naked, just mostly."

“Oh great.” Ryan sets you sketchbook down.

“Come on.” You drag Ryan back to the green room with Gavin following after you. You look through the racks of clothes, flipping through them before you found the garment you’re looking for. “Put this on.” You toss the garment to Ryan.

The gent catches it, looking it over. “This is a kilt.”

“Yup.” You move over to the prop cabinet. “Now hurry up and change.” Ryan grumbles, unbuckling his pants. 

Gavin walks over to you, focusing the lens on you. “So, it looks like you had a full character already planned out.”

You pull a box out, shuffling around its contents. “Yeah. I always make a full character, even when it’s not required.” You pull out a crown, shoving the box back into the cabinet. “It’s something I learned from Burnie.” You turn to find that Ryan has the kilt on, pants and shoes in hand. “Good.” You rush back out to the stage, setting the crown down next to your supplies. Ryan and Gavin follow after. Geoff, Jack and Ray come to stand next to you. “Ryan, I’m going to need you to remove your shirt.”

Ryan sighs, setting his clothes next to the stool before pulling his shirt over his head. Michael glances over from where he’s sitting, watching Ryan and whistling. “Yeah Ryan. Take it off.” He calls, smirking at him. 

The gent glares at the lad, sitting down on the stool. “Fuck off Jones.”

You grab the elven ear prosthetics, ripping open the packaging and grabs the applicator glue. “You’re not allergic to latex or anything like that?”

Ryan shakes his head. “Nope.”

“Ok.” You put the prosthetics on. “Just let me know if you start to feel sick or anything.” Ryan nods as you get the prosthetics set, looking them over before grabbing you makeup tray. You mix together varying shades of blue, picking up an angle cut brush and dab it into the darker blue. You take the brush and start drawing lines all along his chest, accentuating his ab muscles and some of his back muscles before moving up to his face, doing more of a war paint kind of look than anything else.

Geoff and Jack watch you work, Gavin moving around to get good angles of you working while Ray wanders over to Michael, watching what that artist was doing. Gus comes to stand next to Burnie as they watch you all work, talking quietly to each other. You finish up with the dark blue, setting that brush aside before picking up another bigger and wider brush and begin to spread a lighter blue all over his chest, arms legs and face. Once you make sure that all of his exposed skin is covered, you pick up a sponge and blend the light and dark blue together, adding some more dark blue to make it have a nice gradient. "Burnie, time?" You asks as you clean your brushes.

Burnie glances down at his watch. "About 70 more minutes."

You nod, glancing around at the others; some, like Miles, Ashley and Meg, have really good, solid concepts while others have half-assed concepts. You turn your attention back to Ryan. "How are you feeling?" You ask.

"Fine, but I feel like someone's sketchpad."

"Don't worry buddy, you look good." Geoff says as he lightly pats Ryan's shoulder, making sure not to rub off any of the makeup. "And besides, you pull off the kilt really well."

Ryan slightly glares. "I hate you."

Geoff shrugs. "Remember that you volunteered."

"Yeah yeah."

You glance up as you hear someone make their way over to you, smiling as you recognize Dan. "Hey Dan."

Gavin spins around, leaving the camera focused on you. "B! What are you doing here?"

Dan stands next to the British lad. "Well, seeing as I am a paramedic and I have been working with Burnie and Gus in their classes, I'm here to make sure no one keels over or anything." He turns to look at Ryan. "How are you feeling?"

Ryan slightly smiles. "I'm fine."

"Do you mind if I check you over?"

Ryan shrugs. "Go for it."

You look at Dan. "Try not to smear the makeup as much as possible." You tell him as you head back towards the green room.

"I'll try." Dan replies.

Gavin follows after you as you look through the prop closet, looking for something you could use as a tail and possibly for a pair of wings. "So, you know Dan?" Gavin asks.

"Yeah. Like he said, he and several other paramedics come to class when we have models to make sure they are ok.” You find a pool noodle that’s just the right length so you grab that, deciding to scrap the wings. “How do you know him?”

“Dan and I were school mates back in England. We’ve been best friends since the first day of reception.” Gavin smiles. “Those were the days.”

“I bet.” You make your way back out onto the stage, pulling your pocket knife out and starts to shape the pool noodle how you want it. 

Ryan watches you. “Is that going to be my tail?”

“That’s the idea.”

Dan puts the stethoscope around his neck. “His vitals are good but we’ll still keep an eye on you just in case.” He smiles at Ryan before moving over to check out the next model.

“Thanks Dan.” You say, finishing up the tail and set it aside in favor of going in and adding some more details, sharpening the lines on Ryan’s face while making the ones on his body more softer. You’re so focused on what you're doing that you don't notice Burnie standing behind you until he tells you you missed a line. You jump, not really expecting to hear his voice so close to you. “What?”

“I think you missed a spot.” He repeats, motioning to the area you just finished.

You slightly frown. “Ha ha. Very funny.”

Burnie gives you a smile that's a borderline smirk, turning to address Ryan. “How are you holding up?”

“Pretty well, considering I'm covered in paint.”

“You look good.” Burnie glances down at his watch. “45 minutes remaining.” He calls, moving over to inspect the other student's work.

You set the brushes down, picking up a pad of sandpaper and begin sanding the crown, making it course enough to hold paint as well as to remove as much gold paint as possible. You glance around, taking a step to go see what they're up to but stop mid step and look back at Ryan. “Will you be ok if I leave for a few minutes?”

Ryan eaves you off. “Yeah I'll be fine.”

You nod, moving over to where Meg is working on Michael, still sanding the crown as you go. Michael is also shirtless, all of his exposed skin covered in black paint with reds and yellows added in that gives it a molten lava kind of look. Michael also has pointed ear prosthetics and his face makeup make his face look longer, his chin and cheekbones more prominent, giving sharp lines and contours. Meg has fashioned some horns to his head, using his curly hair to her advantage as well as having him wear fake canines. “Amazing work Meg. And here I thought it wasn't possible for him to get any scarier.”

Meg smiles at you, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Thank you. Ryan doesn’t look too bad either.”

You shrugs. “I make do with what I got.”

“Is that part of your makeup?” Meg motions to the crown in your hand.

“Yeah.” You hold it up to inspect it, smiling as most of the gold is gone, leaving behind a nice white base. “I’m going to try and paint it so it looks like it's made from ice.”

“Ooh. That sounds like fun.”

You nod. “Oh it will be. Well I'll let you get back to it.”

“Good luck.” Meg waves.

You spend the next 30 minutes working on the crown, trying to make it look as much like ice as possible. In the last ten minutes you paint the tail and apply it with Ryan's help, draping the back of the kilt over it. Ryan jokes that you should at least buy him a drink before doing anything this intimate. You roll your eyes, smiling as you place the crown on his head.

“That's it. Time's up!” Burnie calls and there's a collective sigh of relief as everyone sets down their brushes.

Burnie and Gus have you artists wait in the green room while they looked your models over. You sit down on the ground, running a hand through your hair as you feel the exhaustion of the day finally catching up to you. Meg sits down next to you and hands you a cup. “You look like you need a pick-me-up.”

You smile at her. “Thanks.” You take a sip, humming in appreciation as the caffeine flows into your system. “How well do you think you did?”

“I personally like how it turned out and Michael was a real champ.”

“He didn't flip his shit and swear left and right?”

Meg shakes her head. “Maybe once or twice, but other than that he was willing to do what I asked.”

You smile, pleased to know that the guys really were willing to help out. Speaking of which, you look around the room and notice that Gavin is nowhere to be seen. “Where's Gavin?”

Meg also looks around. “I'm not sure. I haven't seen him since Professor Burns and Serola ran us off the stage.” Meg looks at you. “Maybe he's out there filming with them.”

“Maybe.”

Ten minutes later when you all are called back out you find out that Meg was right and Gavin had been filming while Burnie and Gus evaluated your work. They told you that they would have the grades up along with their comments by Monday and sent you to wash your models off, five at a time so it wasn't a cluster fuck on the showers. You show Ryan where the showers are, handing him a towel and a body wash that would effectively remove the paint. You wait with Geoff, Jack, and Ray for Ryan and Michael to wash off the paint. Gavin wanders over to you, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. “This is going to make my project a little easier.”

“What do you have to do?” You ask, curious to know because you could think of several things that would make sense with him filming you doing your makeup.

“We sort of have to create a mini documentary about another major or class and I was going to do our acting class but then this happened and you have so much more experience with being a makeup artist. I hope that’s ok.” Gavin gives you a weary look.

You give him a reassuring smile. “It’s fine. I just hope that I can see it once you’re done.”

“Of course.”

You nod and several minutes later Ryan and Michael make their way over to you, both of the men’s hair dripping water. Ryan’s hair glistens from the water and you think that he, as well as Michael, should be on the cover of one of those dumb romance novels that women seem to love. Ryan seems to be able to read your mind because he gives you a stern look. “Don’t even think about it.”

“What? I can’t admire how handsome you are? Shame. And here I thought we were good friends, seeing as I had you mostly naked and was painting you up.” You flash him a playful smirk.

Ryan frowns at you, taking his bag that Jack hands him. “Not like any of these idiots were going to volunteer.”

“Well excuse us.” Geoff says. “You were the one who couldn’t wait to help (y/n).”

“Because I knew none of you were going to.” Ryan says, his voice getting higher as you all exit the building and ideally make your way towards the IHOP a few blocks away.

“I don’t think I could have used any of you anyways.” You say, tucking your drawing book into your backpack.

“Why not?” Ray asks.

“You all don’t have the same build Rye does.”

“Excuse me?” Geoff looks at you.

“You heard me. You’re not as fine a specimen as Rye.”

“I’m not sure if I should be offended by that or not.” Ryan says.

Ray and Gavin both shrug. “Well, I do have more of a swimmer’s build while Gav has more of a runner’s build.” Ray points out.

“Well, if I plan a concept that requires a smaller build, I’ll make sure to hit you up.” You thank Jack as you enter the IHOP, getting a table in the back.

“I think Ryan’s willing to be your model anytime.” Geoff says as you all sit down.

You smile. “Yes. Well, Ryan is a very good model and he’s not bad on the eyes.” You glance over to notice Ryan slightly blush.

“Can we not talk about my body?”

“Why? You’ve got something to hide?” You smile coyly. 

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.” Ryan says, his blush deepening as you smirk, his words finally sinking in. “I didn’t mean...Not like…”

“That’s right; dig yourself into a bigger hole.” Jack says.

Ryan’s saved by the waitress coming by to take your order and he’s silently thankful the conversation steers away from him and onto the topic of video games and what videos they’re going to put on YouTube. You make a comment here and there, agreeing to take part in some the their videos. You can’t help but notice the way Ryan glances over at you, the way his eyes flick down to watch your lips when you talk and you try to ignore the heat creeping up your cheeks, downing your drink and getting two refills before your food arrives. The conversation slightly stimmers off as you all eat, but picks right back up again, Ryan, Geoff and Michael talking about their upcoming game while Ray offhandedly mentions his upcoming meet. Gavin says he had a game soon as well, hoping that you’ll come. Of course you are because you want to see Gavin play and it’s another excuse to spend more time with the boys.

With the check separated and payed for, you make the long trek across campus back to your dorm. You wave bye to the guys while Ryan follows you to your room. “So, when did you want to meet up?” He asks.

You raise a brow. “Meet up?”

“Yeah. To talk about the play and what not. We could get lunch or something.”

You look at him. “James Ryan Haywood, are you asking me out on a date?”

His cheeks turn a brilliant pink. “I mean...if you want to think of it as that…”

“Well, then I’ll wait for your call.” You unlock your room, stepping inside.

“I won’t make you wait too long.” Ryan calls before heading out.

“I hope not.” You say, setting your backpack down and lay down on your bed, tired because it’s been a long day and you could do with a quick nap.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. I've been busy and it took a while to come up with where I want this to go. Hopefully I will be able to post more soon.

“Yeah, I think we can do that.” Geoff tells Jack as they make their way upstairs. “We’ll just have to play-” They stop as they hear grunting and talking coming from Michael’s room. Geoff gives Jack a questioning look as he and Jack step closer to the closed door to hear better.

“Just hold still.” They hear Michael say.

“I am holding still.” Their brows shoot up in surprise when they hear your voice.

“No you’re not!”

“Yes I am!” You grunt. “Just hurry up and put it in already. I can’t stay like this all day.”

“If you would fucking hold still it wouldn’t be so hard.”

“Look, if you’re gonna be a bitch about it, then I’ll put it in myself!”

Geoff knocks on the door before tentatively opening it, poking his head through the crack. “Guys?” He asks cautiously, expecting to find you two naked on Michael’s bed. What he’s not expecting, to his relief, is you two standing in the middle of the room on Michael’s partially broken desk, the wood groaning and creaking under your combined weight. You hold up a new large lighting fixture that looks something akin to a chandelier as Michael works on wiring it up, tools poking out of his pockets.

“What?!” Both of you yell, looking at Geoff.

“Oh good.” Geoff let’s out a sigh of relief. “You two aren’t banging.”

“What? Michael and (Y/N) are banging?” Ray’s voice calls from the hall and a moment later he appears next to Geoff. “That’s not banging.” He says with a frown.

“No we’re not..” You say, your arms shaking. “It’s called Michael doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing.”

“Hey, I know what I’m doing!” He snaps, thrusting the small screwdriver at you. “You’re the one who can’t stay still long enough for me to finish the wiring.”

“Do you even know how heavy this is?!” You stare at him. “And did you have to pick the heaviest fucking one you could find?”

“It’s the only one I liked!”

You let out an exasperated sigh. “Next time we’re going to Ikea. They have amazing stuff that doesn’t weigh 50 pounds.” You shift your weight onto your left foot, trying to get rid of the pins and needles feeling you have in your right foot. As you do so, you put more weight on the center where the desk is much weaker and it gives out under you. You let go of the lighting fixture in favor of catching yourself but the desk breaks completely, you and Michael falling to the ground. The fixture snaps all of the wiring as it falls, hitting you before shattering on the ground. You let out a pained cry, grabbing your left arm as well as your leg. Michael groans in pain next to you.

“Michael! (Y/N)!” Geoff, Ray and Jack rush over to you two. “Are you ok?” Geoff asks, kneeling next to you.

“Considering I just fell off a desk and had a chandelier land on me, I think the answer to that is no.” You groan, pressing your hand against your injured arm.

You hear footsteps thud against the stairs and a second later Gavin and Ryan are at the door. “What happened?” Gavin asks, taking in the scene before him. He notices the blood on your arm and hand. “Oh,” He looks away as he gags.

Ryan kneels down next to Geoff as he gently pulls your hand away. “Let’s see.” There is a deep gash that is about 1.5 mm deep and four inches long, moving at a downward angle.  You slightly wince as Ryan inspects the gash. “I think you’re gonna need stitches.”

“Great.” You groan. Hospitals have never been your favorite place; too many times have you been there because of family and most of the time you leave even more upset than when you arrived, so you have a very negative association about them.

“Come on.” Ryan and Geoff help you up. You lean against Ryan, since your ankle hurts and you’re pretty sure you’ve sprained it. Geoff glances over at Michael. “You alright?”

“Fucking desk.” Michael grumbles, letting Ray and Jack pull him up.

Geoff frowns as he notices a similar gash on Michael’s forehead. “Looks like we’ll have to take Michael as well.”

You all shuffle downstairs and into two cars, Geoff and Ryan helping you since you can only walk on one leg. Upon arriving at the hospital, the nurse take you and Michael back into one of the larger rooms, allowing the rest of the guys into the room seeing as none of our injuries are life threatening. You hop up onto the bed as the nurse start cleaning your arm and Michael’s forehead. Once she leaves, you glance over at Michael, pressing a cloth bandage to your arm per the nurse’s instructions. “I told you it wouldn’t hold.”

Michael slightly glares at you, also pressing a bandage to his head. “Shut the fuck up. Now you owe me a new desk and light.”

“Fuck you. I was just trying to help.”

“You broke my desk! How is that helping?!”

“Your desk was already broken.” You glare at him.

“Enough!” Geoff snaps, interrupting you two before you got into another yelling match. “Both of you are at fault so stop trying to pass blame.” He looks between the two of you. “Now knock it off because I don’t want to have to deal with the doctor and nurses yelling about you two getting into a fight.”

“But she did break my desk.” Michael grumbles.

You glare at him but don’t say anything, deciding to leave it be for now. You turn your attention back to your arm, lifting up the cloth to see that it’s not bleeding as much now. Ryan leans over to look as well. “The bleeding’s gone down.” He says.

“Yup.” You press the cloth back over it.

A few minutes later, the doctor and a nurse come in. The doctor stitches you up first, leaving the nurse to attend to your ankle while the doctor begins stitching Michael up. When the nurse finishes, she looks up at you. “You’ll need to keep off your ankle for the next two week.”

“The next two week?” You groan, knowing that that’ll make everything that much harder and your already long schedule even longer.

“Yes. The next week. At that point, you’ll need to come back in so we can make sure there is no underlying problems as well as check on your stitches.”

“Ok.”

When the doctor and nurse leave, Ryan helps you up and hands you the crutch the nurse gave you. Once you and Michael get your paperwork and instructions for aftercare and when you need to come back in, you all head back to the house. Right as you all get settled in the living room, your phone goes off once. You heave a sigh as you look at it. It’s a text from Teacher, asking if you have all the set and costume plans done. You let out another, more annoyed sigh. Gavin looks over at you. “Something the matter love?”

“Teacher wants the plans for the stage and costumes and those are all in my room. That and I know Bernie would like my character design, which I still have to start and all my supplies are in my room.”

“Ray and I can go get ‘em for you.” Gavin turns to look at the Puerto Rican, who nods in agreement.

“No it’s fine. I probably should head back anyway.” You grumble as you stand up.

Geoff looks up at you. “You sure about that? Are you going to be fine by yourself?”

“I think I’ll be fine.”

Geoff and Jack share a concerned look. Ryan stands up. “I’ll go with her.”

“Oh no Ryan.” You look at the star quarterback. “I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that.”

“Well then it’s a good thing you didn’t ask.” Ryan smirks as he heads upstairs.

“And, pray tell, how long do you plan on staying?” You holler up to him.

“Until the doctor says you’re good.”

“Aka, for the next two weeks.” Michael says, flashing you a smirk.

You stare as Ryan makes his way down, duffle bag in hand. “You do realize the only bed I have is the one the university provides and it’s only a twin.”

Ryan looks over at you. “Don’t you have a futon?”

“A couch, but you don’t expect to sleep on a couch for the next two weeks, do you?”

“I’ll make do.” Ryan heads out the door and into his car.

“You’re crazy, you know that right?” You slowly follow after him.

“Crazy for you.” Ray mutters. He glances up to catch you staring at him. “What? It’s not like you two are subtle.”

“We’re not together.” Your brows furrow.

“We know.” Ray says.

“Honestly (Y/N),” Gavin makes his way over to you. “We’re all waiting for you two to stop beating around the bush and just get together.”

You notice they all share the same look and decide not to say anything because your attraction to Ryan isn’t really any of their business, and yet it is, you remind yourself. You shake your head, finding Ryan waiting out by his car and he helps you in before climbing in himself. He glances over at you as he heads towards your dorm. “What took you so long?”

“Huh?” Ryan’s voice pulls from your thoughts. “Oh. Gav was just wondering if he could get the lighting plans for Monday.”

“Did you say Vav?”

“No?” You turn to look at Ryan. “I said Gav.” You emphasize the ‘g’ sound.

“Oh.” Ryan pointedly avoids looking at you.

You smile, finding it amusing when Ryan mispronounces things or hears them wrong. You let it go as Ryan parks in the lot closest to your dorm, helping you out and into the building. It’s times like these that you’re grateful that you live on the first floor. As Ryan helps you into your room, you remember that your bed is lofted up. “I think the only difficult part will be that.” You motion to your bed as Ryan turns on the lights. 

Ryan takes a moment and looks at your bed for a moment and you can see the wheels turning in his head. “It won’t be a problem.”

You slightly smile, not surprised that Ryan doesn’t think the bed will be a problem. You make your way over to your dresser, grabbing your pj’s that consist of a tank top and short-shorts that are comfortable as fuck. “I’m gonna take a shower.” You tell Ryan before disappearing into the bathroom.

“I’ll be out here.” Ryan replies as he places his duffle bag on top of your dresser.

It takes a little bit of struggling but you strip down out of your clothes and into the shower, standing under the hot spray of water. You find it a little challenging showering with only one good leg while also keeping the stitches of your left arm away from the spray of water, but you manage.

Ryan decides to get changed while you’re in the shower. He tugs his shirt off and pulls off his pants. He grabs his flannel pajama pants from his duffel bag and pulls them on, grabbing his shoes and places them by your closet. He then moves over to the sink and begins to brush his teeth. He looks up when you limp out of the bathroom in your p.j.’s. He tries not to stare at you, seeing as the room was cooler than the bathroom which makes your nipples slightly hard on top of the fact that your shorts barely cover your ass. “It looks like you didn’t have much trouble.” Ryan says, turning to look down at the sink while he washed off his toothbrush. 

“Yes, it seems that I’ve survived.” You move over to the dresser and put your clothes away. You sit down at your desk, grabbing your sketchbook and flips open to the stage layout. You take pictures with your phone and send them to Teacher.

Ryan makes his way over to you, glancing over your shoulder. “Is that what the stage is gonna look like?”

“It’s my plan.”

“May I?” You hand your sketch over, grabbing a separate piece of paper that has a general idea of lights and sound and send that off to Gavin. Ryan looks over your sketch.”You should alo send this to Jack.”

“Why?”

“He’s gonna help out with the wood working so he’ll be able to tell you what is and isn’t possible.”

“Ok.” You said a picture to Jack as well.

Ryan continues to flip through your sketchbook, looking over the costume ideas. “Are you going to make all of these?”

“Meg said she’d help me, once we figure out where we’re gonna put them.” You grumble, beginning to complete the quiz for human physiology. 

“Can’t you keep them at the theater?”

“I could but that would mean going there any time I want to work on them. I can’t keep them here because there’s no room and Meg lives in a small apartment with one or two roommates, so she doesn’t have the room either.”

“You can keep them at our house.” Ryan sets your sketchbook down.

“Really?” You glance back at him. “You sure?”

“Yeah. We have plenty of room and Geoff is amazingly good at sewing.”

One of your brows raises. “ _ Really _ ? Geoff?”

Ryan smiles. “Surprised?”

“A little.”

“We all have our little quirks.”

“No kidding.” You stand up, putting your phone on the bedside tray attached to the bed frame, shuffling towards the other end of the bed.

Ryan moves behind you, grabbing your hips and helps keep you steady and up into your bed. Once he makes sure you’re comfortable, he turns off all the lights before lying down on your couch, grabbing the spare blanket you left out.

“Hey Ryan?” You ask quietly.

“Yes (Y/N)?”

“Thanks for staying and being a good friend.”

Ryan smiles. “Well, I’m glad you let me be your friend.”

You slightly chuckles. “Yeah. I’m glad too.” You struggle and burrow down into your sheets.

“Good night (Y/N).”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. Writing sex scenes in public is not the best idea. Also, Ryan's costume is reminiscent of the Trapper from 'Dead by Daylight', link: http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/deadbydaylight/images/a/a0/Killer_Trapper.png/revision/latest?cb=20160701195723  
> Anyways, hope you all like it. Thank you for your patience and support. Heart you all. <3

Over the next week as your sprained ankle heals, you and Ryan grow closer; you grow very comfortable with having Ryan stay in your dorm with you. Some of the other guys visit and spend time with you. Geoff and Jack act like a worried mom and dad, making sure that you’ve been eating right, getting enough sleep and that Ryan is taking good care of you. Michael, Gavin, and Ray focus on helping you with some of your homework and distracting you by playing video games. You glance up from the notebook in your hands, smiling and laughing as Michael begins yelling at Gavin and the Brit squeals and squawks in reply. You shake your head at their antics, tucking your feet underneath you as you curl up against Ryan’s side on your couch. “You two are something else.” You say.

“Well, Gavin’s a fucking cunt and he deserves to die.” Michael says in a low growl.

“I didn’t mean it Michoo.” Gavin whines, scooting closer to the brooding lad.

“Yeah yeah.”

You shake your head, turning your attention back to your homework. You let out a sigh as you stare at the worksheet in front of you that’s about the endocrine system. Ryan looks down at your homework as he drapes his arm over the back of the couch. “How’s your physiology class coming along?” He asks.

“Slowly but surely. Better than my make-up class.” You tell him.

“Oh?” He raises a brow.

“Yeah- for our current project we have to work in pairs and my partner is fighting me on  _ everything _ .” You explain. “We have two separate ideas and he has no sense of compromise.”

“Sounds like a pain.” Ray says for the first time in the two hours they’ve been there.

You look over at where he’s perched on your window sill, playing his DS. “And it’s annoying because I can’t just ask for a new partner or do the project by myself.”

“Why not?” Ray asks.

“One, because the partners were assigned and our grade is dependant on it, and second, that’s not how it works in the real world, so if I ask, Burnie would probably slap me if I asked.”

“You know that’s against school policy.” Ryan says.

“Burnie knows he could get away with it because it’s me.” You close your notebook with the worksheet trapped inside, dropping it on the floor. “Done.” You lean back, resting your head on Ryan’s shoulder as you close your eyes.

Ryan slightly flushes, letting his arm drop to rest on your shoulders. Gavin giggles, cooing about how cute you and Ryan are. You smile when Ryan and Gavin fall into bantering back and forth.

You like it when the weather begins to cool down and October comes around, excitement builds as Halloween draws even closer. You find yourself sitting outside in one of the quads on a sunny afternoon, working on your next character design, thankful that your group project wasn’t a complete disaster but it wasn’t a makeup you’re really proud of. Your head jerks up when you hear Geoff call your name. You see the bearded gent make his way over to you. “Hey Geoff. What’s up?”

“Hey. How busy are you going to be this weekend?” Geoff asks as he comes to stand in front of you.

“Well, I do have a couple assignments and projects to work on. What do you need?”

“Quite a lot of the team us getting together to do a haunted house and most, if not all of them, now that you and Ryan are dating and that you’re a makeup artist- a really good one-they wanted you to come and do our makeup.”

“I don’t remember either of us saying that we’re dating.” You pack up your bag, walking with Geoff across campus towards the house.

“But you two are.”

“Since when?”

“Since Ryan was your nurse and you took him home.”

“What?” You scoff. “Pff. No. I-what?” Geoff raises a questioning brow. “I mean, it’s not like I don’t not like him. We’ve just never talked about it.”

“Whatever you say princess. So, do you think you could help us out?”

“Maybe. I can call up a couple of my fellow artists and see if they could also help out.”

“Awesome. So, from what Gavin’s told me, you and Ryan are getting pretty touchy feely with each other.” Geoff grins as your cheeks heat up.

When you two arrive at the house, you and Geoff work on a few of the costumes before the other guys arrive. They put their stuff away before you all head out, meeting up with the football team as well as Meg, Ashley, and Miles. You know you’ll be too busy to do all the makeup yourself and you know how talented they are. All four of you talk to the team, getting a general idea of what they want to do. You break out your sketchbook and begin to map out the layout of the building they’re using, figuring out where all the groups will be.

“So, here’s what I’m thinking.” You say mostly to Meg, Ashley, and Miles, but with the team clustered around you it’s hard for them not to overhear. “Since it seems like all the groups have their own theme, we’ll stick with that. So, Meg, if you want to take Edmund’s and Albert’s groups, since it’s mostly beauty and zombie makeup?”

“Yeah, sure.” Meg says, grinning. 

“Ashley, do you want to take Chris’ and Travis’ groups?”

“I’d love to. I’ve always wanted to do bionic, cyborg makeup.” Ashley says.

“Awesome. Miles,” You turn to look at him. “Wanna take Richard’s and Geoff’s groups and I’ll take Todd’s?”

Miles raises a brow. “You don’t want to take Geoff’s group?”

“I thought you likes a challenge?”

“I do.”

“Good because I already know what they want and I want to see what you come up with.”

“Ok.”

You all break off into your smaller groups. Even though you don’t have two groups, Todd’s is larger than the rest so you still have a decent amount of work to do. By the time 8 PM rolls around, you’ve gotten all the basic concepts down and have finished fully sketching out two of them. You and the guys head back to the house, the gents setting about cooking dinner as you and the lads retire to the living room. Over the next few days you finish all the designs, get all the prosthetics and colours you’ll need and by the time Halloween- which happens to fall on a Saturday- rolls around, you, Meg, Ashley, and Miles have the football team in their haunted house by noon and quickly work on completing all the makeups. You all keep them as simple as possible while still looking amazing. Luckily, none of you decide to do large prosthetics. You finish up a little before 5, moving over to help Ashley with her makeup.

When you all finish, the sky is darkening outside and the team bustles around, getting everything ready. “Well, that does it for me.” You pack up your makeup kit.

“You’re not staying?” Meg asks.

You shake your head. “I have so much to do that I can’t up it off anymore.”

“Ok.” Meg pulls you into a hug. “Just be careful- lots of creeps out tonight.”

“I know.” You quickly bike over to the house, putting it in the garage before entering the house. You find Gavin, Ray, and Jack in the living room all dressed up. “Going out?” You ask, setting your kit by the stairs to take up to Ryan’s room- which you’re sharing, yes- later, trudging into the kitchen.

“Yeah. We’re gonna see how good the haunted house is.” Gavin bounces over to you, the fur of his cat costume bouncing with him and the bell on the collar around his neck jingles with his movements. “You wanna come?”

You hum, playing with the bell. “Considering I’ve seen all the makeups and the set up, I don’t think they would do a good job scaring me. Besides, I have homework to do.”

“But it’s Halloween.”

“Doesn’t mean my homework is magically not due or that it’ll do itself.”

“Oh ok.” Gavin seems to deflate a little.

You lean over and kiss his cheek. “Bring me back some good candy yeah?”

Gavins gives you a small smile. “Sure.”

You and Gavin walk back into the living room, you sitting down on the couch as Gavin joins Ray. Jack looks at you. “I don’t think we’re going to get have any trick-or-treaters, so you might want to lock up once we leave.”

“Yes  _ mom _ .” You say, pulling off your boots. “You all have your keys?”

“Yes  _ dear _ .” Jack says, leaning over and presses a kiss to your head. “We shouldn’t be out too late.”

“I’ll be fine. Have fun.” You call as they leave the house. You lock the door, closing all the blinds and change into your pajamas consisting of short shorts and a tank top. You settle yourself down onto the couch as you set about adding the final touches to the remaining costumes.

You don’t realize you’ve drifted off until your head jerks up and your eyes snap open. You set the costume on the coffee table, standing up and head into the kitchen. You glance at the microwave as you look through the fridge. “Damn. Already 11:30?” You close the fridge and move over to the pantry but freeze when the back doorknob jingles and the door slowly opens.

You slowly back towards the stairs, cursing at yourself for leaving your cell phone upstairs as a masked man dressed in a bloodied apron enter the kitchen, wielding a bloodied butcher knife in one hand. The man’s head turns to look at you and he lumbers towards you. “Shit!” You swipe a jar from the counter and throw it at the intruder. You take off running through the living room towards the stairs, once again cursing yourself as you only have the one lamp in the living room and the small light over the sink on providing light.

You run in the direction of the stairs, cursing as you trip over your abandoned makeup kit, tweaking your ankle. You scurry up the stairs, hearing the intruder right behind you. You hobble down the hall to Ryan’s room, throwing the door open and flick the lights on. Your eyes land on your phone sitting on the nightstand, charging. You limp towards it but an arm wraps around your waist. “No!” You yell, thrashing in the strong grip. “Let me go!” You grab a nearby book and smack the intruder upside the head.

The intruder groans, releasing you. You fall to the ground, still clutching the book. You turn to throw the book at the intruder but they grab your hand and crowds over you. “Stopit (Y/N).” They say, their voice muffled and a bit hard to understand but they sound  _ very familiar _ .

“R-Ryan?” You tentatively ask as they pull the mask off and Ryan looks down at you. He release his grip on your wrist. “Oh my god. Oh my god!” You smack him with the book. “Why the fuck would you do that?!”

Ryan rips the book from your grasp. “To be fair, I didn’t think you’d still be up or that I would scare you.”

“You didn’t think that  _ sneaking _ in through the back door wearing a  _ fucking mask  _  and carrying a  _ bloody butcher knife _ in the  _ middle of the night _ wouldn’t scare me?!”

“I left my keys here and the others are staying out a little later and the back door was unlocked.” You glower at him. “I didn’t want to wake you up by ringing the doorbell!”

“Well, because of your little stunt I sprained my ankle.”

“You threw a jar full of food at me and hit me with a book! Twice!” Ryan argues.

“To be fair I thought you were an intruder.” You crawl over to the bed and pull yourself up onto it. “And why didn’t you just tell me it was you in the first place?”

“The mask isn’t easy to speak through. It muffles your voice so much that it jumbles up anything you’re trying to say.”

“Uh huh.” You say, not sounding all the entirely convinced.

Ryan huffs but watches you inspect your ankle. “Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“I don’t think so.” You slightly wince as you run your hand over your ankle. “I think some ibuprofen and ice will be fine.” You can see the guilty expression on his face and you figure you’re both at fault. “Though I do have to give Miles props for doing a really good job.”

“Yeah. Most of the people who came through would agree with you.” He sets the mask and knife down on the desk. 

You watch Ryan remove the apron, grab his pajama bottoms from the dresser and head for the bathroom. “You can change in here.” You tell him. Ryan stops, turning to look at you. “I don’t mind and I won’t look.”

“Maybe I don’t mind you looking.” Ryan says as he closes the door.

“Oh?” You shift on the bed. You know that you and Ryan have been beating around the idea of dating and what not.

You watch Ryan slide the overall straps from his shoulders, letting them pool on the ground as he pulls his shirt off. You’ve seen Ryan shirtless on several occasions but the sight of his toned upper body always amazes you. You reach out and grab his hand, pulling him on top of you as you kiss him.

Ryan places his hands on either side of your head, returning the kiss. You two break apart when the need for oxygen becomes essential. He looks down at you, shifting his weight to one hand while the other gently caresses your cheek. “Do you want to do this? I mean, we’re not officially dating or anything.”

“Everyone knows we like each other and already assumes we’re dating so we might as well be.” You reply, draping your arms around his neck.

“I do hope that you realize that by dating me you’re, by extension, dating the other guys in a sense right? We’re all kinda a-”

“Package deal? Yeah, I figured that one out. So long as things remain relatively the same and nothing too dramatic happens to change our dynamics, I’m fine with it.” You lean up and kiss Ryan. “And to answer your earlier question, yes, I want to do this.”

Ryan smiles. Leaning down to kiss you before pulling off your shirt and his hands massage your breasts. You let out a low moan, arching up into his touch. You’re soon stripped of your shorts and underwear and Ryan’s joins yours, leaving the two of you completely naked. Your hands roam his body, admiring his toned muscles, one hand sliding down his hip to grip his cock. Ryan is a bit longer and thicker than your previous boyfriends but you don’t think that’ll be a problem. In fact, you think it’ll be better than those other times.

Ryan groans as you slowly stroke his cock, his hands moving down and one of his fingers proad your entrance. You gasp as his finger slides inside, moaning as he quickly adds a second. “God. You’re so fucking wet for me.” He pants, nipping your neck.

You let out a whine that turns into a moan as a third finger penetrates you. “Oh fuck.” You thrust down onto his fingers, moaning as you grip his shoulders. “Fuck. Need you inside me now.”

Ryan grunts in agreement, grabbing a condom from his nightstand and rolls it on. You watch him through half lidded eyes line up and slowly press inside you. You close your eyes, head dropping back to the pillows as Ryan bottoms out. He grabs your legs, pushing them up and almost folds you in half as he begins thrusting in and out of you. You moan loudly, one hand fisting the sheets as the other tangles in his hair. Ryan grunts when you tug his hair, thrusting harder and faster.

“ _ OH, _ fucking shit!” You moan. “Oh yes! Right there! Fuck. Harder.”

Ryan complies, releasing one of your legs in favor of circling and playing with your clit. You moan even louder, tightening your grip on Ryan. “That’s it baby.” He says huskily. “Let me see you cum on my dick.”

You throw your head back, back arching up off the bed and you scream Ryan’s name as your orgasm washes over you. Your vision goes white as your walls contract and you cum. Ryan moans loudly as you tighten around him, thrusting once more before filling up the condom with his seed. His hand stills and he collapses down next to you, the both of you panting heavily. You move so your head is resting on his chest and you curl up next to him. Ryan pulls off the condom and throws it away before wrapping his arms around you. “So, I guess this means you’re my girlfriend now right?”

You lightly chuckle. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

Ryan smiles. “I love you (Y/N).”

You turn to look up at him, caught off guard by the confession but you quickly recover. “I love you too Ryan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you all have an ideas of what you would like to see happen next please leave a comment- I have a few ideas of what I want to happen in the short term but not sure about the long term. I would really appreciate the help.


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